The 7 Bridges Marathon will begin in Coolidge Park on the North Shore of Chattanooga. Crossing the Market Street Bridge, the race will lead runners on a scenic tour of downtown Chattanooga’s bridges and riverside neighborhoods.

The half marathon course (13.1 miles) will accompany the full marathon (26.2 miles) over three bridges, splitting off at the Chattanooga Food Bank on the Tennessee Riverwalk. While the half will return over the Walnut Street Bridge and finish in Coolidge Park, the full marathon will continue over three more bridges (the C.B. Robinson, Thrasher, and Riverpark Bridges, respectively) before returning downtown to cross Walnut for the Coolidge Park finish. Come on and race!

Galloway Training Method

"Will
the Galloway Method help me to complete a half marathon faster, or
to complete a full marathon at all?"

This is a
tough question. I'm loathe to suggest any particular training plan
or specific solution, because everything needs to be individualized
and catered to each person. However, let me break down the key
element to Jeff Galloway's philosophy of racing.

Mr.
Galloway believes that, in order to stay fresh for the entire race,
you need to take a walk break every so often. His charts for pace
vs. distance and how frequent walk breaks should be taken are
readily available on his website (www.jeffgalloway.com),
so I'm not going to get into that.

The
benefits to walk breaks seem obvious: your body is given an
opportunity to recharge the batteries and you're able to continue to
compete for longer than if you ran the whole way through.

Truth be
told, there are no shortcuts to distance running. The "trick"
to becoming a better, faster distance runner is to run more. That's
where a thorough training plan comes in. Long-term, if you want to
be able to compete faster, you're going to need to figure out some
long-term training plans and a consistent approach to training.

Short-term,
however, if you're under the gun for a specific event, there's
nothing wrong with following Jeff Galloway's plan. It will allow you
to finish a race which you might otherwise have not finished, and
will allow you to be more recovered and be able to more quickly
return to training after the event, which will allow you to
(long-term, again) run more, and get better for later events.

Here's a
rather pretentious, though unfortunately pretty accurate quote from
John L. Parker's novel “Once a Runner.”

"What
was the secret, they wanted to know; in a thousand different ways
they wanted to know The Secret. And not one of them was prepared,
truly prepared to believe that it had not so much to do with
chemicals and zippy mental tricks as with that most unprofound and
sometimes heart-rending process of removing, molecule by molecule,
the very tough rubber that comprised the bottoms of his training
shoes. The Trial of Miles; Miles of Trials. How could they be
expected to understand that?"

Mr. Parker
could have maybe phrased it differently (although his target
audience was collegiate and post-collegiate competitive distance
runners), but the truth remains: long-term, the secret to running
fast is to run more. And it's as simple as that. The more you're
able to run, the better you're going to be.

For more information about Trainer Will, including how he can give you private, personalized coaching as you train for your next race, including the 7 Bridges Marathon, 4 Bridges Half Marathon or 2 Bridges 5k, visit http://runCHA.co/ today.

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